I am personally a big fan of TFL stats for college DL. A guy whose sack and TFL numbers are about the same is kind of a red flag. You want a player who was constantly in the backfield, even if it did not always mean a sack. TFL means he was in position to pressure the QB and the weird nature of college offense probably kept it from happening as much as it otherwise would.
That is what I find intriguing about Gerald Willis III. 18 TFLs is excellent production even though 4 sacks isn't anything to write home about. I see him projected as a 2nd rounder many places. I watched him vs. LSU and he beat his blockers a ton. Really good hand usage, power, and ball awareness. I think he lacks conditioning a little. And he stands up rather than keeping low and driving sometimes. Stuff that coaching and experience can help, and probably stuff that he would've worked through had he not taken a year off in 2017. When he was on he was hard to stop.
|